Ostap Bender (also Ostap-Suleyman-Berta-Maria-Bender-Bey, Bender-Zadunaysky, Ostap Ibragimovich) is a fictional con man and antihero who first appeared in the novel The Twelve Chairs written by Soviet authors Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrov and released in January 1928.

He dreams of travelling to Rio de Janeiro, “the city of his dreams”, while admitting the futility of that obsession.